The World Health Organization (WHO) on February 11, 2020 announced a new name for the deadly coronavirus. According to WHO, the temporary name 2019-nCOV given to the virus from China is now officially changed to “COVID-19“
“We now have a name for the disease and it’s ‘COVID-19’,” Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday.
What is the Meaning of COVID-19
Breaking down the meaning of COVID-19 Tedros said that “CO” stands for “corona”, “VI” for “virus” and “D” for “disease”, while “19” was for the year, the outbreak was first identified in December 2019.
The coronavirus was detected on December 31, 2019 but it became a global concern in January 2020, when it spread fast affecting over 4500 globally on 28 January, the greatest number being in China.
Why The New Name?
On the reason why WHO renamed the virus, Dr Tedros said the organization had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease.
In addition to its reason is the fact it want to close up any possible stigmatisation or discrimination on Chinese people since the virus is said to have originated in the city of Wuhan in China.
? BREAKING ?
“We now have a name for the #2019nCoV disease:
COVID-19.
I’ll spell it: C-O-V-I-D hyphen one nine – COVID-19″
–@DrTedros #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/Kh0wx2qfzk
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 11, 2020
